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CAVING IN NORTH WALES

There are not too many caves in North Wales and many are quite small or coastal.  However, recent years have seen quite a lot of development of caving with three main clubs active: Grosvenor Caving Club, North Wales Ogof Llyn DuCaving Club and UCET.  There are large areas of limestone on east and west of St Asaph, the eastern block being the Halkyn Mountain which was also mined for lead.

Significant caves in North Wales are currently in the Alyn valley such as Poachers Cave (Ogof Hen Ffynhonau), Ogof Hesp Alyn and the caverns accessed through the Milwr Tunnel.

Further south east near Minera where lead and zinc were mined, there are some significant caves which were partly entered by the miners.  These include Ogof Dydd Byraf, Ogof Llyn Du (an interesting cave which acts as a resurgence at times) and Ogof Llyn Parc.  These systems are connected. 

Moving west, more caves are found at Great Orme which is a limestone block and then in Anglesey but these caves are not as large.

Access to caves in North Wales has been a bit fraught at times but there are members of the DCC with strong links to the North Wales cavers so access has been achieved to most systems in recent years.

map of the caving area area map     photos and reports of trips albums and reports     useful links links     

AREA MAP

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ALBUMS AND LOG REPORTSOgof Dydd Byraf

Albums

Reports

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Books and Journals

A few journals are available but the best accounts are probably in the Limestone and Caves of Wales published by the BCRA which has a chapter on Limestone and Caves of North Wales by Peter Appleton.  A much older publication "Caves of North Wales" by Tony Oldham gives an over view of the older sites.

Websites

The Grosvenor Caving Club does not appear to have an active website.

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